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Kasese, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kasese Municipality Teachers Initiative Sacco-KAMTA have failed to pay back a loan of Shillings 150M they obtained from Walimu Cooperative Savings and Credit Union Limited in 2016.
Records from Walimu Cooperative savings and credit union Limited show that KAMTA has only paid back Shillings 10 million since 2016. Steven Nabende, the Chairperson of Walimu Sacco, says the mode of recovering the money from the KAMTA has been very poor.
He says the money has since accumulated to Shillings 300 million because of interest and penalties. He says they have now undertaken lots of measures to ensure the money is recovered including suing individuals in the courts of law to compel them to pay.
They have also requested the town clerk not to endorse requests by KAMTA members to acquire more loans from other financial institutions.
KAMTA through the Ministry of Public services gave a standing order to the ministry of finance to deduct part of the instalment from all teachers’ salaries.
Robert Baluku, the KAMTA chairperson says they have managed to remit Shillings 76million, which he says hasn’t been captured by the Union. He says many teachers have deliberately failed to pay back the money despite numerous reminders.
Moris Muke, a teacher and member of KAMTA says that she was surprised in March when they deducted Shillings 268,000 from her salary yet she didn’t take any loan. She was later informed that all KAMTA were to be affected by the defaulters, something she protests.
Jessica Muhindo who cleared her loan to zero balance has asked the Sacco to update its records and put up a deadline for repayment. She says it’s unfortunate that she struggled to clear her loan but is suffering the consequences for those who have defaulted.
Kasese town clerk, Isiah Twesigye says that he has guided KAMTA to produce an updated list of all the defaulters for harmonization with Walimi Sacco. The town clerk has also scheduled a meeting with all the defaulters on Wednesday to come up with a recovery plan.
Nabende advises those who cleared the loan or didn’t take the loan to formally write to the union.
Government in the financial year 2015/16 appropriated Shillings 25bn towards the teacher’s fund with an aim of supporting teacher’s Saccos to boost their personal welfare. KAMTA comprises 306 members, 150 of which got loans.
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